Sounding Board - Shop/Eat Local

As board members, we have a fiduciary responsibility to every owner of Outpost Natural Foods. In other words, the nine of us have been elected with trust and confidence to help manage and protect the co-op’s interest. We do this through sound decision making and representation.

As we enter the holiday season, what does the art of giving or giving thanks mean and are they different? The golden rule has always been that it is better to give than receive and that we should always give thanks for what we have.

Authors Karen Zimbelman and Marilyn Scholl wrote an article for food cooperative board directors titled: The Ownership Toolbox. They tried to define members of cooperatives by level of involvement. At Outpost, we refer to our members as owners. We hope that all shoppers someday choose to expand their involvement and become owners. They can do this by purchasing a share of the cooperative. At the same time, we hope that all owners continue to expand their participation while enjoying their ownership. How would you define yourself as an owner? Do any of these definitions of participation come close?

One of the really cool parts of my day job at Feeding America is that I get to travel around the country to join, start, simplify, complicate, explicate, and otherwise advance some of the big conversations surrounding food, food access, hunger, and food systems. It’s really one of the favorite parts of my job.

I have been an Outpost Board Member since November of 2012 and would like to share some insights since walking into that board room six months ago.

But first let me step back a little. Last year when I was mulling over sending in nomination papers it occurred to me that perhaps being a board member was something I may not be qualified for. Looking back I was right to feel hesitant but wrong in my qualification assumption. It all comes down to a few things I have either learned or verified over the past half year.

After having a few days to digest our annual meeting, we wanted to take a moment to recognize your level of commitment to our cooperative. Some of us shop, use re-usable bags and cups, donate time or money to Outpost organized community events, submit comments, fill out our surveys, read our website, follow and respond to our blogs, and attend owner events. We vote. And we celebrate our cooperative’s ongoing commitment to help our community. We even recruit friends and family to attend the annual meeting to support our values.

Last June, I had the good fortune to attend the Consumer Cooperative Management Association (CCMA) annual meeting in Philadelphia. It may sound like a big yawn, but it isn’t. One of the more interesting events was the screening of the completed part of a film by Steve Alves entitled Food for Change: The Twin Cities Story. Steve is a member of the Franklin Community Co-op in Greenfield, MA, and decided to research and produce this film which highlights a colorful history of the cooperative movement in the US.

Despite the rain, sleet, and snow on Dec. 9, forty-two local Milwaukee neighbor businesses and organizations got together as well as 940 attendees, for the 4th Annual “Buy Local Gift Fair” held at Lakefront Brewery. This 4th annual, amazing holiday shopping event was sponsored by Local First Milwaukee, Lakefront Brewery, and Outpost Natural Foods.

As a cooperative business, our owners choose the team of individuals (Board of Directors) who will determine the business goals (Ends) and oversee general management’s strategy (Means) for accomplishing those goals. Ideally, each Director will represent at least one aspect of the diversity of our ownership population.

In other words: You have an opportunity to select YOUR ambassador in the leadership of your Outpost.

On Saturday, October 6, I had the pleasure of attending Harvest Day at Walnut Way, on 17th and North Avenue. The entire 2200 block of N. 17th Street was blocked off for the celebration, with a large sound truck on the north end, providing a stage and sound system for talk and music.

Ah, what was I thinking when I came up with the notion of writing about 52 lessons learned? One lesson per week of my challenge - that should be a piece of cake. Okay then maybe I just have a bad old case of writers block.

I’m almost at the end of week 52 as I’m writing this post, and feeling a little sad that this adventure is almost over. Or is it? I mean once you start something like this does the adventure really ever end? It is food we’re talking about, and while I learned a lot about cooking from scratch over the past 52 weeks, there is still so much more to learn. So my question is, should I keep blogging? What do you think?